Mononoke Hime

When an Emishi village is attacked by a fierce demon boar, the young prince Ashitaka puts his life at stake to defend his tribe. With its dying breath, the beast curses the prince's arm, granting him demonic powers while gradually siphoning his life away. Instructed by the village elders to travel westward for a cure, Ashitaka arrives at Tatara, the Iron Town, where he finds himself embroiled in a fierce conflict: Lady Eboshi of Tatara, promoting constant deforestation, stands against Princess San and the sacred spirits of the forest, who are furious at the destruction brought by the humans. As the opposing forces of nature and mankind begin to clash in a desperate struggle for survival, Ashitaka attempts to seek harmony between the two, all the while battling the latent demon inside of him. Princess Mononoke is a tale depicting the connection of technology and nature, while showing the path to harmony that could be achieved by mutual acceptance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

San Main

Ishida, Yuriko Japanese

Ashitaka Main

Matsuda, Youji Japanese

Gozen, Eboshi Supporting

Tanaka, Yuko Japanese

Kodama Supporting

Yakul Supporting

Moro Supporting

Miwa, Akihiro Japanese

The Forest Spirit Supporting

Iinuma, Kei Japanese

Jiko, Bou Supporting

Kobayashi, Kaoru Japanese

Okkoto Supporting

Morishige, Hisaya Japanese

Toki Supporting

Shimamoto, Sumi Japanese

Suzuki, Toshio Producer

Miyazaki, Hayao Director, Theme Song Lyrics, Creator, Screenplay

Gaiman, Neil Script

Pannetier, Jean-Marc Script, ADR Director

Reviews

Mar 12, 2008

Phill-z

Recommended

Let me start by saying that I am not a Miyazaki-disciple. I do not view him as the "grandmaster of everything anime." When I say "yeah...Miyazaki is ok" I say it not out of ignorance (I've almost every one of his films) but because I personally find him to be incredibly overrated. However I find that when he has all of his stuff together, Miyazaki can destroy practically any other director out there, the man is incredibly talented, but his problem is consistency.

When I say that Princess Mononoke is his masterpiece, I mean it. It was the first film where ... he finally got everything together and made a perfect anime film. Some will say that Spirited Away is better, but Mononoke is so much more powerful than that.

Story: Miyazaki does not like civilization. He stated once that he would prefer it if we went back to living in the fields, he wants to get rid of all technology. In Mononoke we see the evils of industralization and how humans are killing the earth. Humans can coexist. But many purposefully try to make themselves better and stronger. Miyazaki does an absolutely amazing job of showing that industralization, if handled the wrong way, is an incredible evil, but that it is in the hands of humans..of real people. I didn't really care all too much for the story, but I found his use of spirits to be incredible. I wasn't a huge fan of the story itself, it was a country boy goes to the city vibe...but I was a huge fan of all the political jabbings that Miyazaki was throwing. I will admit that I didn't notice it the first time around, I was told this as I watched it the second or third time, by my friend who is a Miyazaki acolyte. The beauty of the story really comes after you watch it the second or third time, as the whole movie experience is very overwhelming.

Art: I give it a 7. I am not a fan at all of Ghibli. I absolutely cannot stand their use of recycling their characters. I hate how all the women look exactly the same, and the men have the same annoying mustaches and beard combos that obscure almost their entire face. I find it lazy and incredibly detracting. I found that Ashitaka was.....boring, his design was so lacklustre that I have now just googled him to figure out exactly what he looked like. Where the art shines in this is in the spirits (gods), the creatures, and San. The designs of those characters alone redeemed the art for me. Also worth noting that in the beginning all those "snakes" were done digitally, which was, for me, impressive.

Sound: Eh....what can I say. Miyazaki films ALWAYS have great music and soundtracks. I have never found an instance in watching any of his films where I've gone "hey, the music doesn't really feel right." The music in his films are absolutely superb.

Character: I felt that the characters weren't really people so much as symbols. I felt that Ashitaka, in a certain way, was innocence. When his arm is cursed he is given a power that he cannot wield and he struggles to find a way to cure it, to get rid of the curse that now stains his arm and will kill him. Eboshi was industralization, but she was also compassion. I felt that she was the most human of all the characters, even though many people view her as an antagonist or slap her with the label of "oh..she's the evil lady." The thing I appreciate about this film is that there are only a handful of truly bad people. Everyone else is human. San is humans living with nature, but at the same time she is a beast herself. She lives in harmony with nature and has absolutely no qualms about killing to defend her land. Every character is multifaced, however if you only view the movie once you might not see the different characteristics of each character.

Enjoyment: The perfect Miyazaki film. It is deep for people who are looking at it closely, but it is also just a fun film for people who are only looking for something fun to watch. The first time I watched this (the first Miyazaki film I'd ever seen) I wasn't impressed at all. Mind you, I was probably 10 at the time, this was the first exposure to REAL anime I'd ever had. But as I watched it again recently I realized just how great of a film it really is.

However it really is accessible. You talk to almost anyone about anime and they'll probably (99% likely) know about Princess Mononoke. I know that this turns a lot of people off. Personally when someone comes up to me and says "hey, I saw Samurai Champloo and it was great, can you recommend me anything else kind of like it?" It makes my skin crawl a little bit. However, Mononoke is a staple, and is really something that you should watch, if you haven't watched it, I would definitely put it at the top of your to-watch list.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 28, 2015

DanteMustDie8907

Mixed Feelings

Princess Mononoke - 6/10

it's one of the few Midzayaki cartoons that isn't really for children as much as the others, has some very violent moments, but thankfully they aren't the centre of attention of this movie.
The plot follows a boy from a village who gets cursed during fighting a demon and is now seeking the spirit of the forest to beg for a cure.
Instead he gets tangled in wars between regions for resources, and this is where the main point of this movie comes in, it's greed that makes humans want to claim things. "Everyone wants everything, but i might actually get it" and they ... don't care as to what happens to the surroundings, so they try to kill a god for their own greed, thinking that they are the god that can rule over everything.
As you can see the plot is pretty good, it is directed in such a way it gives a sense of an adventure, full of interesting, a little cliche but interesting characters.
One of my favorite things about this movie is the art. Holy shit it is all very smooth and drawn very well, looks like a little smoother version of 'Spirited Away' which is only to be expected from Studio Ghibli, but it is also drawn very nice, the blood isn't just red ketchup, and the animals all have their fur nicely detailed, most backgrounds are in late-80s style so i guess you'll either love it or hate it.

Overall it's very enjoyable, stood the test of time very well, but kinda lacks a sound direction as in soundtrack, and also i just feel it kinda fails to achieve something more than just a good watch.
Not bad though/

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 22, 2018

goodachari001

Not Recommended

***Warning: This review may contain significant plot spoilers***


Let's start with the title - 'Mononoke Hime'. After watching the movie, one can easily concur that the title is a mismatch.

The movie starts off great. Immediately we are introduced to the main character taking down a demon god and was cursed in the process. He sets out on a journey to find a way to lift his curse. At this point i was greatly engrossed & was really looking forward. Man!! It was a big let down.

Characters:

We have a main character 'ashitaka' who is so lame and useless that if you remove him from ... the movie, the story would remain the same & not a thing would change. His presence do not impact the story in any way. All he does is postpone the inevitable. This kind of characterization applies to others as well.

We have a woman who wants to destroy forests to build guns & conquer the country . Why ?? we weren't told.

We have a emperor who wants to kill a forest god. Why ?? May be Immortality but then again it was never confirmed. All we have to go by is a conversation between two of his subordinates trying to speculate on it.

This do not stop here. Even the forest gods in the story are stupid. The best character in the story is a middle aged guy who acts as a spy and was tasked with killing the forest god.

Story:

The plot is basically a fight between forest spirits and the humans who want to destroy the forests. A bunch of random events are thrown in to make up the length of the movie. The main character remains clueless and confused throughout the story. He neither makes an effort to stop the fight nor side with one of them. He just remains half -assed wanting to stop yet wouldn't do anything for the cause.

The climax is basically a reset of the all events happened until then. All the lost forests comes back to life and all the people responsible for the deforestation remain alive vowing to restart and build even a better village.

Animation:
the animation is good but the plot & characters made it difficult enjoy it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Mononoke Hime Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Metty - Feb 4, 2008	210 replies	by _MushiRock11_ »» Sep 6, 8:52 AM
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